The use of satellites to broadcast radio programs for reception in automobiles, trucks, vans and other mobile platforms has been widely proposed for implementation (see Report and Order, Federal Communications Commission, GEN Docket No. 90-357, Released Jan. 18, 1995). The transmissions from the satellites containing the radio programs are today at frequencies between about 300 MHZ and about 4000 MHZ which are much higher in frequency than those used today for transmission of radio programs such as amplitude modulation (AM) transmission or frequency modulation (FM) transmission. The satellite transmission may be from one or more satellites and from one or more terrestrial repeaters of the satellite transmission in areas where the terrain or man-made structures prohibit good visibility from the automobiles to the satellite(s).
To receive the satellite and terrestrial transmissions in the mobile platforms (i.e., automobiles, trucks, etc.), the mobile platform requires an appropriate radio. Until this relatively new satellite transmission service becomes widely used, which will require several years, automobile manufacturers are unlikely to provide the capability to receive such satellite/repeater transmissions in radios delivered with new cars. This means that potential customers with old cars and with future factory delivered cars desiring such new transmission services must replace their existing radios with new radios which include the capability to receive these transmissions. This is expensive and time consuming, since the removal of the old radio and installation of the new radio must be done by trained technicians at a technical facility. This invention provides a system to add a satellite/terrestrial repeater transmission receiver to existing mobile platform radios quickly and easily by anyone.
The invention is, in part, related to inventions disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,863 which issued on Jan. 11, 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,673 which issued on Jun. 7, 1994, both patents entitled "RADIO FREQUENCY BROADCASTING SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING TWO LOW-COST GEOSYNCHRONOUS SATELLITES"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,485 which issued on Jan. 16, 1996 entitled "RADIO FREQUENCY BROADCASTING SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING TWO LOW-COST GEOSYNCHRONOUS SATELLITES AND HEMISPHERICAL COVERAGE ANTENNAS"; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,471 which issued on Jan. 7, 1997 entitled "MOBILE RADIO RECEIVERS USING TIME DIVERSITY TO AVOID SERVICE OUTAGES IN MULTICHANNEL BROADCAST TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS". The invention is also, in part, related to the inventions disclosed and claimed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/815,619, filed Feb. 26, 1997 in the PTO, and entitled "Simply Installed Automotive Satellite Broadcast System Receiver." The contents of these patents and of this patent application are incorporated herein by reference as though fully set forth here.